In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,041, which issued Nov. 18, 1975, there is disclosed a dual metallized capacitor. That device comprises a single capacitor section conventionally wound with two metallized films. After winding the first capacitor, the metallized layer is removed from the surface of one of the films and an insulated sheet inserted which has a length sufficient to encircle the capacitor section at least once. Winding is then completed to form the second capacitor. The ends of the section are metallized to provide electrical contacts. The circular extending sheets provide barriers preventing shorting of the plates of adjacent capacitors. The concept of that invention is sufficiently broad to include any number of capacitors in a single section. In actual industrial applications, as many as twenty capacitors have been so formed in a single capacitor section. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,041 is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention is an improvement to that disclosed and claimed in the referenced patent. It arises from the need for a service man to carry a large number of capacitors of different values when making service calls. As an example, an air conditioning service man may be called upon to service a number of different sized air conditioning units in a single workday. These units may require capacitors having different capacitance values. Accordingly, the serviceman must either carry a sufficient number of capacitors to meet any possible requirement, or he must make extra trips to obtain capacitors of the proper size. It is an object of the present invention to provide a single capacitor unit which may be carried by the serviceman and varied in the field to alter its capacitance. Other objects, features, and advantages will become apparent from the following description and appended claims.